APPLICATIONS are being invited for places on a course that seeks to provide newcomers to TV production with camera operating, directing, editing and other skills in return for providing material to be broadcast on any of several online TV channels.

Says the ‘parallel university’ leader, Dave Rushton, who operates the Institute of Local Television from Summerhall: “We will run a course of 40 hours in duration – running part-time over three or so months and to suit student availability – to fine-tune TV skills among students studying TV and journalism, in preparation for work in local and community TV.

“Students will get the opportunity to make eight clips, 2-3 minutes in length. To successfully ‘graduate’, the student’s TV clips will need to be accepted for screening on one of our several approved .tv sites.”

THE head of the campaign for a Yes vote in the recent Scots independence referendum, has said he doesn’t believe broadcasters were ‘systemically biased’ against the campaign.

Blair Jenkins – a former head of news and current affairs at BBC Scotland – told STV News: “I think there were mistakes made by the broadcasters, and I think there were omissions and I think sometimes – because broadcasters are not always as well-resourced as once they were – there is a tendency to pick up the newspaper agenda unthinkingly more than was perhaps the case in previous decades.”

During the indyref, the BBC was frequently accused of being biased in favour of the No campaign.

Added Jenkins: “We had issues from time to time, but I don’t myself that we faced a systemic bias if you like, that there was some corporate intent to disadvantage the Yes campaign.

“Knowing how both STV and the BBC operate, and knowing a lot of the people involved, I don’t think that’s a credible view.”

BEGINS the website of the National Union of Journalists: “Women working in broadcasting say sexist attitudes are still prevalent in the workplace. A survey of NUJ members disclosed unequal pay rates and women being overlooked for promotion.

“As part of its evidence for the House of Lords Communication Committee’s inquiry into women in broadcasting, the NUJ surveyed its female members working or have worked in TV and radio.”

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